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Pay & Leave Claim Decisions

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Office of the General Counsel

File Number: 003441 Date: September 9, 1999

OPM Contact: Jo-Ann Chabot

A former employee of the [agency] has filed a claim for payment for 3,600 hours of overtime work.

It appears from the claim file that the claimant was a member of a collective bargaining unit and that the claim was subject to a negotiated grievance procedure. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) does not have jurisdiction to consider a matter that is or was subject to a negotiated grievance procedure under a collective bargaining agreement between the employee's agency and labor union, unless that matter is or was specifically excluded from the agreement's grievance procedure. Congress intended that such a grievance procedure would be the exclusive remedy for matters not excluded from the grievance process. Cecil E. Riggs, et al., B222962.3 (April 23, 1992). In this case, the negotiated grievance procedure was available to the claimant when the claim arose, and that procedure was his exclusive remedy. The fact that the grievance procedure may no longer be available to the claimant to pursue his claim does not provide OPM with a basis for reviewing a claim that OPM could not have reviewed in the first instance. Paul D. Bills, et al., B260475 (June 13, 1995). Accordingly, OPM cannot assert jurisdiction over, or issue a decision concerning, this matter.

This determination is final. No further administrative review is available within OPM. Nothing in this settlement limits the employee's right to bring an action in an appropriate United States Court.